How Not To Fall In Love
by hdixon
Summary: Beth Greene is lucky to be alive, and even luckier to be in love with Daryl Dixon- but its almost impossible to love when so much is at risk and so much is in your way. If only Beth knew how to fall in love, because this is definitely not how its done.
1. Tired of Trying

_* so I don't know where I'm going with the church setting, but this doesn't really follow the story all too well… Sorry, I have never written fanfiction before! I__**do **__ship Bethyl, please don't hate!_ _I recently posted the beginning of this on .com (which is my tumblr), so feel free to go check that out/leave feedback! xoxo, Hadley _*

"What?" Beth Greene's pale pink lips curled into a sly smile as she flopped down onto the red cushioned pew, leaning against the cold dusty wood. Daryl looked to the floor, his cheeks burning with embarrassment. Naturally, everything that had to do with Beth made him blush. He had been trying to catch her eye at her from the corner as she and Carl cleaned their guns together, and she had just finished. "Well, somethings on your mind, or you wouldn't be staring at me like that!" He wasn't all too sure what she was talking about, but then he realized he had been in some sort of an awkward daze. Beth rolled her eyes, getting annoyed with Daryl's constant shy-ish attitude toward her. "Nothin'" he mumbled. She was absolutely used to this, and just as she was about to say something to him about his shyness, Rick, Michonne, Carol, Father Gabriel, and Sasha had busted through the front doors of the church. "We need to pack up our things. We are spending one last night here, and then-" Rick started instructing the group, but Carl interrupted him. "Wait, we're leaving _already_?" he seemed shocked. Daryl put down the squirrel he had just started cleaning, his mouth slightly open. He adjusted his expression, slouched, and returned to his squirrel. Beth got up and walked to go sit with him, but as she passed Rick, he put a hand on her shoulder. "Take it easy with him." he muttered. She nodded and attempted at a feeble 'thanks-for-the-advice' smile, sat down next to Daryl, and then heaved an exasperated sigh. _Say something… Say anything, I don't care,_ she thought desperately. Daryl looked up at her, bleakly nodded, and looked back down to his squirrel. This was just about as hopeless as attempting to cure the walkers, and Beth was quite sure she was just going to have to move on. From the way he and Carol talked, she was almost certain that she had no chance.

_2 days later_

The only sounds between The Group were the crunching of their feet on the leaves in the woods, the occasional growls and moans of walkers, and Rick's 'coast is clear' whistle. They had been walking through the woods for 2 days now, camping under large trees and taking turns keeping watch. "We're bound to come up on some shelter soon, right?" Carol asked with a tone of uncertainty in her voice. Nobody replied for around 2 minutes and Daryl broke the silence, speaking for the first time in a day: "I'm gonna take a piss." Beth rolled her eyes. She was getting annoyed with him; she had shown him every sign she could think of without being desperate, but he hadn't even noticed her trying toget his attention. Or had he? _Maybe he's still into Carol,_ Beth thought as she scooted near Daryl, but he instead walked off. Rick held out a hand to signal the group to wait for him, and Michonne slid her back down a bare tree. "Where are we going, Rick? We've been walking straight for a while, lets take a turn. For all we know, we could be walking deeper into these damn woods, and I'm getting tired of it." Carol nodded in agreement, and Carl looked at his shoes. "Why are we stopped?" Sasha asked, unattentively. She hadn't been paying attention, but there really was no point. Daryl whipped his arms around, clearing some spiderwebs as he walked through a gap in two large branches. Carl was pointing his gun at him, but lowered it when he realized that it wasn't a walker or a stranger.

By the time that the group had started walking, Daryl had a large string of squirrels and two rabbits over his shoulder and he was carrying his crossbow with his free hand. He and Beth were falling behind from the group around an hour later, and Carl and Tyreese were out of breath from switching turns carrying Judith. Rick took her into his arms as the sun was setting, and they hadn't come upon shelter still. Beth layed out the black tarp and Daryl threw his trashbag of stuff onto the ground next to her. "Hey." she said quietly to him, and he looked up and nodded to her. "Are you gonna talk to me, or are you just going to continue ignoring me? Did I say something, Daryl? Because I'm done tryin'." Beth's face was flushed with anger and she had grown tired of trying to get his attention, but all Daryl did at her remark was look at his shoes, flop onto the bottom end of her tarp, and look back up at her. "Beth and I'll take first watch." he stated, and this reassured her in a way. She was quite sure he might talk to her while taking watch, and maybe even tell her how he felt.

As night dawned quickly on the group, Michonne removed her sword from her belt and sat at a tree opposite of Daryl and Beth. It was luck to Beth that she was out of earshot, and she knew that Daryl would never talk to her if somebody from The Group could hear her. A few sparks of happiness started in her stomach and for the first time in weeks, she full on smiled. Daryl looked at her worriedly, probably because she was staring into space and smiling. He tried to see what she was looking at, but he could see nothing, so he looked back at his crossbow. Beth stopped smiling, and lifted her handgun at a noise in the distance, but it was so dark she could see nothing. Her heart began to race, and Daryl lifted his crossbow as well...

_**Author's**_** Notes:**

_This was my first fanfiction (I am a writer, but I have never written this kind of thing before!). I love The Walking Dead, and it is hard to write fanfiction for this show because of the constant change in location. S5x7 airs the day after tomorrow, and in the promo, The Group is changing location so its extremely hard to make sense while I am writing. This location doesn't make a whole ton of sense, so I think I won't change the location of this until **after **the season finale airs. That doesn't mean I won't write though! Please follow my tumblr for updates on this story and sneak peeks for new chapters! Feel free to comment feedback and ask questions, just be nice and keep it moderately clean! Thank you soooo much for reading, and every little bit of feedback counts! XOXO_

_Hadley_


	2. The Fall

Daryl and Beth both abrubtly jumped from the ground, holding their weapons in front of them. Beth's heart was pounding in her ears and she tightened her grip around her handgun.

"I-I think its just a walker," she said, listening intently for the usual growls and moans to confirm it.

Daryl looked at her, nodded in agreement, and then looked back to the woods. The rustling grew louder, and the groaning of a walker echoed. Daryl's eyes were still on the trees, but he bobbed his head in approval of Beth's idea.

"I don't know where it's coming from!" Beth yelled hurriedly, hoping to awaken the rest of her friends laying on the black tarp.

Rick luckily wasn't asleep and so he shook Carl awake, and soon, the whole group was up. Abraham's eyes were filled with his usual anger and battle-readiness as he lifted up his rifle. The whole group was on their feet and standing back to back. Tyreese was holding Judith, who began to cry rather loudly. Carol winced at her crying and took her into her arms, handing Tyreese her gun, and beckoning the baby to quiet down.

"Don't fire those." Rick commanded to Abraham, Tara, Carl, and Beth; instead he drew out his red-handled machete that had once belonged to Bob.

Around 10 walkers emerged from the branches and Daryl shot two of them who were closest to Beth, holding her back with his muscular arm. "Daryl, I've got it!" she yelled at him as the walkers continued to pursue them.

"NO!" Daryl missed a walker's head when she hit him. The walker's face was torn and skin was hanging loosely from different sections of its face as though it had run through barbed wire. It snarled and bit at the cold air as it neared Beth, toppling onto her and causing her to fall to the ground.

"BETH!" Daryl shot another walker, and Maggie stabbed another with the bayonette on the end of her shotgun.

Her head hit the particularly large roots of a tree hard and the rest of her body felt numb compared to the feeling she was experiencing. Pain seared through Beth's head as she hit the ground and sudden headsplitting throbbing near the back of her head. Her gun fell out of her hand and rolled out of reach, and she clawed desperately at the leaves for it. She managed to hold the walker off of her chest to keep it from biting, but she was growing weak and weary from hitting her head.

"I can't reach my gun!" she yelled bleakly as Daryl finished off a walker, and suddenly the one on top of her fell dead on her stomach and it's grimy hands stopped thrashing.

A black arrows point was barely inches from her nose and Daryl came rushing toward her. Beth could hear the sound of Michonne's sword slicing through walkers and feet crunching leaves all around her. Daryl lifted the walker out of the way and knealed next to her, placing his head on her chest to listen for a heartbeat. Maggie screamed and crouched beside her, putting her hands on her forehead. Cold tears hit Beth's cheeks and everything seemed to be even slower as her vision blurred away. Her eyes unseeing and she could feel nothing but the throbbing in her head, hearing only her heartbeat echoing in her ears. A sudden lonely silence pierced the night as she drifted into a weary blackness...


	3. Everybody's Got Somebody

"Beth? You there?" Daryl, Rick, Maggie, Michonne, Carl, Carol, and the whole rest of The Group were hovering in a cirle over Beth's head as she lay on the ground.

"Father, get some water for her when she wakes up." Rick started talking, but Daryl held a hand out to silence him.

"Shh, she's waking up." Beth fluttered open her eyes, confused from the abrupt several hours of sleep.

"Well, she's not dead." Carl thought aloud accidentally. Daryl and Maggie flashed him looks of agitation and Carol walked away when Beth looked at her.

Father Gabriel poked his head into the circle of heads above Beth; Daryl bent down next to her and helped her sit up against as Gabriel handed her a crinkled and muddy water bottle. "You good?"

"Wh- did anybody get bit?" Beth tried to look around to count the people now lined in front of her and Maggie sat beside her and put a hand on her cheek to keep her from turning her head.

"You're lucky you didn't. How's your head?" Maggie's face drifted in and out of focus and Beth was having trouble finishing sentences.

Beth didn't answer but closed her eyes to stop her head from swimming any longer. Daryl wrapped his fingers in hers and she shot open her eyes to look at her hand. _He's holding my hand!_ Elation flooded through her body and blocked out the throbbing in Beth's head. She squeezed his hand in response, closed her eyes and relaxed.

"You okay?" he asked. She nodded her head and smiled.

The group wondered away to do their own things because they obviously weren't leaving with Beth in this condition. She was getting stronger by about noon and she was able to lift her head to talk to Daryl, who hadn't slept that day but would not leave her side.

"You should sleep, I've got it." Beth kept trying to get Daryl to sleep, but he wouldn't go.

"No you don't. You already almost got your ass killed." he said matter-of-factly. He wasn't leaving her anytime soon. And he wasn't really wrong about her almost dying.

_Thank you for **finally**_ _talking to me,_ Beth thought. She was so happy and she hoped he was, but something at the back of he mind said he still had something for Carol. When Maggie got so tired that she couldn't stay next to Beth for any longer and drifted off to sleep next to Glenn, and Daryl's eyes began to close.

"You can sleep, you know. I'll be fine with you right here. I promise I'll wake you up if I need you."

Beth was just happy he was with her, even if it was only because she was hurt.

_The Next Day_

The Group walked further to get out of the woods, and still stopping regularly because of Beth's injuries from the fall. Her back and head ached from the fall but she continued walking until they reached an old-looking brick house in a clearing.

"It's all we've got." Sasha said as they cleared it out.

There were two walkers in the attic that Beth and Daryl searched, both thin and scraggly with no cuts or bruises. "They starved." Beth whispered to Daryl, and they both covered the bodies with sheets and continued searching the house.

Rick and the rest of them all settled into the house and sorted through the food in the cabinets. Beth and Daryl were both assigned to boarding windows, while Michonne and Rick went into the basement to see what they could find there, which wasn't much more than a few blankets and some empty glass jars.

Beth was upstairs in the master bedroom, admiring a really big painting of a field surounded by trees. It had bright yellow flowers scattered through ran her hand over the edges of the painting delicately, a warm feeling inside her bubbling to the surface. Just as she had turned to the corner to read the painter's signature, the door creaked open and she jumped around with her free hand curled around her knife.

Carol peered through the crack and stepped into the room. Thick dust on the wood floors muffled her footsteps as she neared Beth, making the look on Carol's face intimidating.

"You scared me." Beth said to her timidly. Carol walked closer to her and sat down on the white bedspread.

"I'm not shocked after what you went through at Grady..." there was a long pause between Carol's words. "Daryl was looking for you."

"Oh." Beth was quiet and confused._ Of course she had to bring him up._

"Well, we were gonna share a room since Michonne and Rick have a room, but it looks like you've already claimed this one. Its kinda big, for just you." Carol seemed like she was trying to be rude, but Beth was too tired to let it bother her.

"Yeah, you're right. You have it." Beth retorted, grabbing her bag off the floor. She was surprised at Carol; she had never come across as the type of person to be so territorial over Daryl. Beth's face flushed with anger when she left, and she made sure to slam the door behind her. She could picture Carol and Daryl together, which of course made her even more angry.

"Hey." Daryl ran into her as she stormed down the hallway on her way downstairs but Beth wasn't going to let him rub it in too.

"Save it. Carol's waiting for you." he looked confused when she said it, but when she kept walking and didn't stop to talk to him, he stopped and didn't go on.

"Carol and I- wait. Its not like that with us." Beth looked at him with such an angry expression that he quickly straightened up. He tried to put his hand on her arm to stop her from walking, but she shook it off.

"I'm going to get something to eat." she said as she wentdownstairs and put her bag on a couch. "I'm sleeping here" she yelled, and Carl, who was sitting in the floor cleaning his gun again, looked up at her.

"At least it won't be just me and Judith over here." he said and attempted a weak smile.

Beth just nodded to him, but Carl didn't go back to his gun. "Can I ask you something?" he asked her, and she turned to face him.

She dropped the dirty patchwork quilt she was laying across the couch and turned to face him. "Sure." she tried to sound calm, but her hands were shaking and her voice cracked a little.

Carl set his gun on the floor and walked over to the couch where she was standing. He sat down so she joined him, and she just folded her hands and looked to the floor.

"My dad and Michonne like each other, don't they?" she hadn't expected something like this from him.

"I guess so. Why?" she asked him while she turned to face him.

"I don't know. Seems like everybody's got somebody, but I just feel like... Nevermind." Beth looked back to the floor, Carl took his hat off and got up from the couch, and sat back down on the floor beside it.

Everything was quiet for a while. He broke the silence when Judith stirred over in her picked her up from the box and rocked back and forth on his knees to get her to fall back asleep. When she was asleep, he put her back in the box, picked it up, and set it next to him so he could see her clearly.

"Why do you like him?"

Beth's eyes widened and she started blushing. She folded her hands in her lap and unfolded them over and over, then stood up and resumed her quilt folding. Beth didn't answer him for along time. Her gut wrenched when he asked her this question, and finally, she looked at him.

"What makes you think I lo- feel anything for him? He's obviously busy with Caro-" Beth clapped a hand to her mouth and stood in shock with Carl staring at her. _Shit._

"I saw your face at the church, when we were helping Father Gabriel with his gun." he started, and when Beth tried to stop him, he continued talking. "I get it."

Her cheeks went an even deeper shade of red and she still had her hand over her mouth. "I- what do you- uh..." she had no idea what to say to him. She was so embarrassed and she ignored the fact that he didn't mean to be nosy.

She dropped the quilt and stood there, looking at the floor.

"I didn't mean to be um.." He looked really sorry and she knew he was right.

"Yeah? Don't stick your nose in where it doesn't belong!" She started yelling. He was looking at her with his bright blue eyes wide.

"You don't get it! There is no such thing as love in this world! Not anymore. Screw whatever Maggie and Glenn have! It's never going to work! I don't _like_ him! Stay out of it, okay?" The words seemed to come from her without her knowing.

Carl looked at the floor and then at Judith, who was crying. "I'm sorry..." He stood up and looked at her one last time before turning to leave the room.

"Everybody's got somebody, Beth."


	4. Chapter 4

"Sorry I yelled last night." Beth and Carl were sitting on the couch the next morning, both holding plastic spoons and sharing a can of applesauce.

"Forget it." They had been quiet all morning, and Daryl still hadn't come to talk to her since they had talked in the hallway.

Even though Carl still seemed mad, he kept getting less and less tense when they passed the can back and forth. "I don't know what else to say." Beth didn't really mean to say this. She was just getting tired of him not talking.

"I said forget it. It doesn't matter." he seemed a lot less angry when he said it this time.

"I actually want to talk about it if you wan-"Beth started.

"They can't know about you and him, if it happens." Beth's blue-green eyes widened.

"What? Why?" She had no idea what he meant. She wanted to know more so she leaned her elbows on her knees and put the applesauce can on the floor.

"The group can't help you if one of you dies. We can't have any setbacks." Beth's eyes widened even more and her heart was pounding with a guilty feeling. "We already deal with Maggie and Glenn. If one of them were to die, you know how hard it would be."

He was right, and Beth knew it. "So you won't tell them?" Carl was talking in his serious voice and she realized how grown up he sounded.

She just nodded. "Its never going to happen anyway. He's already occupied with Ca-" Just then, Daryl walked into the room from the kitchen.

"Kitchen. Beth. Now." His eyes were swollen with sleeplesness. _Did he stay up all night thinking about this?_ She smiled thinking about it, but straightened up.

She got up, Carl nodded at her, and she followed Daryl into the kitchen. There was nobody in there and the tiles were covered in blood where she was standing. It looked like one of the Group got a walker here.

"Grow up." Beth took this the wrong way, obviously. She walked over to him, slammed her fist on the oven next to him, and looked into his eyes angrily.

Her nose was inches from his, and suddenly she felt something uncomfortable. "You and Carol are nothing, right? Thats what you said to me. I bet you didn't say a damn thing to her about me, did yo-"

He put his hand on her cheek and leaned in. _Oh my God. Oh my God. _Her heart started pounding when his lips touched hers. But she didn't pull away, she couldn't. It was exactly what she wanted.

When they finally pulled apart, her cheeks were bright pink, but so were his. Little did they know, Carol was standing in the doorway from the kitchen when Daryl said "Better?".


	5. You're No Better

"Yeah..." Beth looked up in his eyes again, but looked to the floor awkwardly. _This can't be happening._

Carol knocked on the wood molding around the doorway to the kitchen, where she had just seen them kissing. Daryl and Beth turned around and she strode toward them.

"So, after everything we've been through, Daryl- after last night." Carol looked pleased, and Beth's eyebrows raised and her eyes filled with tears at this.

"Wh- last night?" Beth looked at Daryl like he was crazy for kissing her after whatever 'last night' meant. She expected him to fix everything, but he just looked at the blood on the floor.

A stinging tear ran down her face and Beth left the room, knocking Carol out of the way while she stormed out. Carl was still on the couch, but he knew from the tears now streaming rapidly from her eyes that something was wrong. He was going to ask her if she was okay, but she obviously wasn't.

"Beth!" he got up and she fell into his arms, even though she didn't have feelings for him, she hugged him anyway. She couldn't believe this... _This isn't happening_, she thought with a loud hiccup from crying so hard. She was now sobbing and she felt like such a kid for crying so hard.

She wouldn't have been crying so hard if the world wasn't over, and there were plenty more people to like as much as she liked Daryl. "What happened? What did he- hold on" he said as he sat Beth down on the couch, who curled up in a ball and started slowing her crying down.

Carl stomped into the kitchen, where Daryl was sitting on the floor against the wall with his head in his hands and Carol was nowhere to be seen. "_What... Did... You... DO TO HER!" _he yelled at him, standing there with hatred-filled eyes.

Daryl looked up at him but didn't reply. "I didn't. Carol did. Ask her." This made Carl even more mad, and he tightened his hand around his gun, which was now pointed at him.

Daryl's eyes widened. He didn't have his crossbow with him, so he was reaching for his knife while he stood up. "I said nothin'." and truthfully, he wasn't lying.

"Listen, just- where's Beth?" but Carl shook his head and stood in the doorway to block him. "MOVE!" Daryl pushed through anyway and walked into the living room.

Beth was curled up on the couch still, but this time she wasn't crying. Her hands were balled into fists and her knuckles were white from pressure. _I hate that bitch. I hate her. Last night? What the hell is _

_last night supposed to mean? Did they-_ the more she thought about it, the tighter she closed her eyes and the tighter she curled her fists.

"Beth?" he said, but she didn't look up. Daryl didn't feel like explaining, although he wanted to. He knew she would ignore every word he said.

_Fifteen minutes beforehand: (Daryl's POV)_

"Wh- last night?" Beth said, tears in her beautiful eyes. Daryl knew he got lost in them, he just knew he couldn't stop Carol.

He didn't do anything last night with her, they both slept on the seperate sides and didn't say anything. He knew that. He just couldn't stop Carol- she would tell the whole group what he and Beth had just done. He'd be weak, and Beth would be hurt either way (which he couldn't stand).

When Beth was in the other room, Carol slammed the door shut so that Rick and Michonne, who were still asleep (well, maybe not asleep, in Daryl's opinion) couldn't hear her yell.

"Last night? What the hell is last night?" Daryl's eyes narrrowed and Carol walked closer, dragging her fingertips across the table next to him.

"I'll tell them. I'll tell Rick, Michonne, Abraham... I'll tell them _everything_ that happened. You know Rick will never trust you as his main man again, like he did with Glenn." Daryl winced at this.

Rick was his** brother.** They were leaders, and Beth, who everyone now saw as a fighter too, couldn't stand to be treated like a kid anymore. "What do you want?" it was all he could say, he loved Beth. Or, at least he thought he did.

"I don't want her near you again, not like that. Its us, or I tell them. You can't tell her this happened, got it?" Daryl knew she'd hurt Beth if he did it, Carol never settled with just one punishment. "I won't kill her, either. I won't be that nice. She'll pay if you slip."

"Fine." Daryl couldn't let Beth feel pain, and he knew Carol could really hurt her. "She's strong, whatever you do won't be too much." he retorted, but she was already in the living room.

He sat down against the wall, trailing his back until he hit the floor. And then, Carl came in the room.

_(Beth's POV):  
><em>

"What?" she had finally agreed to talk to him, and the Group was now awake. They were in the kitchen, raiding through the canned food, so Beth and Daryl went to the basement and sat on the steps to talk.

Tara and Rosita had walked through twice, asking them if they wanted food, but they both said no. Beth was too angry to talk. It was too early for her to deal with something like this, and she and Carl had only been awake because Judith was crying...

_Maybe if I hadn't been awake, this all would be different. _She kept thinking in circles, and they hadn't talked at all. Still confused about what happened 'last night', and still too angry to talk to him, they were just sitting on the dusty carpet stairs and looking down into the dark and empty basement.

Daryl was holding a cigarette lighter and flicking it on and off. He had inched his free hand near hers on the steps three times now, but she kept jerking it away.

"Did something happen last night?" she finally gained the courage to ask him, but she didn't sound as great as she had imagined. Her voice cracked and her eyes were still red from crying.

After a few minutes of silence, Daryl grunted "Yeah." quietly, and Beth stood up. She walked up the stairs, turned around, and looked down before leaving. "You're no better than her..." and she walked out, leaving him alone in the dark as she shut the basement door behind her.


	6. A Message

"This house is a great place to be. I haven't seen any walkers other than those ones we killed when we went fishing in that creek, right Rosita?" Tara and the Group were all laughing over dinner about a creek they found when scouting in the woods earlier that day.

"Beth, you okay? You and Daryl been acting weird lately..." Michonne leaned over to Beth while they were sitting on the living room floor. Carl was sitting and laughing with Rick over next to Judith who was sprawled on the floor and playing with a dusty leatherbound book.

"Mhmm..." Beth was mesmerized in her own thoughts, which were all short and jumbled. Michonne looked at her with concern but looked away to mess with Eugene, Gabriel, Maggie, and Glenn.

Noah had found a couple dusty bottles of wine and some other alcohol that they all broke into immediately. They were burning a low, nearly smokeless fire in the fireplace and everybody was laughing like crazy but she just wasn't feeling the fun mood they were.

Daryl was looking at the ground too, but Carol kept trying to talk to him and looking at Beth.

"WHAT!?" Beth lost her temper once when Carol looked at her and the Group looked up from their paper cups and glasses (Daryl kept downing his drink every time they refilled it and it seeped through his paper cup after 30 minutes, so Tara found him the only unshattered glass and gave it to him) but resumed shortly after.

Carol smirked at how she made Beth mad, and Daryl saw her and went upstairs with two big bottles of wine (the owners must have been collecters, because there were hidden wine bottles everywhere, Beth found one in the dusty toaster oven) and he told Carol if she followed him, he'd shoot her.

Rick didn't hear his comment, but Carol stayed downstairs, and Beth snuck off soon after him and found him on the lavender bed of a room she didn't know existed. She was regrettably drunk as well, and she was wondering through a random sulky bedroom, found a door, and went through it. She had guessed he had done the same as she had, and he had only drank through one bottle and shattered the glass in a trash can next to his bed. (She found the other bottle in his pants leg and opened it).

She flopped down next to him and he awoke immediately. "Hey..." he said. He was so drunk, he probably didn't even know what he was saying when he said this, but he told her _everything_ about what Carol had told him, and when she was taking a swig of the red wine from the bottle, she spat it all over the bedspread.

She was too intoxicated and too tired to think about what he had just told her, and he was saying sorry over and over. He leaned up and kissed her once, but that obviously wasn't enough for two totally wasted people who loved each other but couldn't be in love.

One thing lead to another...

_The Next Morning_

Beth woke up feeling sick, with her jeans on her head and her hands deep in the back pockets; but she was covered in wine (she forgot to close the bottle and fell asleep with it). She was sticky and when she looked in the mirror in the bathroom, she discovered what looked like a bruise on her neck... _Oh. My. God._

She ran into the bedroom, realizing why she woke up in her underwear, and shook Daryl until he woke up. "Daryl!"

He woke up, turned over, and what she saw made her giggle: Daryl had his hair brushed back from his face, his shirt was wrapped around his neck like a scarf, and there was a red stained post-it on his cheek that said "Beht". She laughed at how she misspelled her name, and she was confused as to where she found the post-it until she looked at the post its thrown all over the floor next to the desk in the corner.

Daryl's eyes went straight to her in an old-man style flannel that she found in the dresser drawer, and then to her messy half up-half down ponytail and realized what had happened as well. "Shit." he grunted as he rolled over and got dressed, ran to the bathroom, and came back to her cleaning up the bed.

"We were drunk. Carol doesn't know..." she said, but Daryl had another opinion.

"She's not stupid. She had to have come looking for me." he wasn't wrong either.

When Beth was turning over the wine-stained comforter to hide the mess, she saw a post-it that was neatly plastered on the headboard. _How did I not see that?_

She picked it up and read it, and immediately knew who it was from:

this cuts deep Beth

"What's that?" Daryl mumbled and took the note from her hand.

He looked up at her with apologetic eyes after he read it and Beth thought she knew what was coming, and Daryl knew she was sorrily mistaken.


	7. Weak Doesn't Survive

_**Author's Note:**_

_Hey! So, this chapter comes with a warning! When it comes to the somewhat gross part, if you're super sensitive, then don't read it, but I promise its not bad. Its a bit dark though. I bolded it out so you don't have to read it, it still talks about what happened after so you're good. Enjoy, and feel free to read the rest of the story even if you are sensitive. :) Its not a bad thing, my sister is like that, which is why I wrote this. If you could watch the gross walkers in TWD S5ep7 then you're good. :)_

"She saw us! She saw you and me, doing- whatever we did." Beth wasn't scared. She thought she knew what she was in for.

"We could've not done, uh, that." Daryl said, but Beth glared at him. "I'm not complaining."

"You remember?" Beth remembered some of it, but not a lot. She couldn't remember what he was telling her last night... Something about Carol... She remembered how good of a kisser he was...

"Yeah. Some of it." his voice was scratchy. "There's no way they didn't hear us talking."

Beth rolled her eyes. "Great."

She walked out of the room, and Daryl followed as they walked downstairs. Tara was asleep on the big ugly rug in the middle of the room next to Eugene, who was spooning her. _Ew._

Rick and Michonne were on the couch, and either Darl or Beth didn't want to know why she was in his t-shirt, but she had an idea. They both laughed quietly and walked into the kitchen, where Carol was holding a paper cup of what Beth thought was water and sitting at the breakfast table.

"Get out, Beth." Carol's voice sounded rigid, but she was serious. Beth shot her a look and turned to leave, but only because she didn't want whatever was going to happen to Daryl to be any worse.

_Daryl's POV:_

Waking up next to his favorite person in the world was nothing like he imagined it would be. They had just found a note, one particularly nasty one at that. He knew she was going to hurt her, and it wasn't even his fault he told her: he was drunk.

"Don't touch her." he warned her and he wrapped his fingers tightly around his knife.

"You slept with her... After what I told you, you had the nerve to do that."

"I don't remember anythi-" he interupted her, but she talked over him.

"I SAW IT! We went to find you, and I saw! Did you not understand when I said don't do anything like that?! This is for your own good, Daryl."

"Carol, this isn't you. Please don't do this." he started but she wouldn't listen. He just wanted the old Carol back.

"Beth and I are going for a walk." she lifted herself from the chair and walked toward the door.

"Oh, and if you come after us, or tell them, I'll make it worse for her."

"Carol!" she turned around, and looked at him as he reached for her with his knife. She snatched it out of his hand.

"Come and tell Beth its going to be fine, and you don't want to come." She was now pointing the knife at his chest. "I'll do it."

Daryl and Carol walked into the living room, where Beth was sitting against the bookshelf.

"Go on with Carol." Beth looked at him confused, but he tried to get her to see this was serious, which she got clearly.

She got up and Carol grabbed her arm and put away the knife. The second they walked out the front door, Daryl sat down on the floor and couldn't help but imagine what she was going to do to her...

_Beth's POV:_

"Where are we going?" Beth was looking at Carol, who had her hand gripped around her arm.

"LET GO OF ME!" She finally yelled as she and Carol were in the woods.

"I'm not going to kill you. I just hope that Daryl learned his lesson..."

"WHAT ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT?! What lesson?" Beth was struggling frantically to get out of Carol's grip around her arm. She was taking out a knife- _Daryl's knife?_

"STOP!" Carol was trying to hold her still, but she wasn't going to stop fighting.

"He... said.. you... were... strong... -stop fighting!- But... you're... weak..." Carol said, between breaths, holding her down. Finally, she got her still and Beth's heart was pounding in her ears.

"And weak, doesn't survive, Beth."

**WARNING** **HERE IS WHERE IT GETS WEIRD, FEEL FREE TO SKIP UNTIL YOU SEE THE BOLD AGAIN, YOU'LL BE ALL GOOD THERE. **ITS NOT EVEN THAT BAD, I'M ONLY WARNING YOU BECAUSE I DON'T WANT HATE FOR NOT DOING IT.

She took the knife and drew it closer to Beth's forearm, which was being held against a large boulder they were leaning against.

Carol pressured it to Beth's skin, and Beth kept fighting until she felt a pain so immense she couldn't help but try to fight Carol with her free hand.

Carol was carving something so deep into her arm that nothing could stop the bleeding. And she was doing it slowly, each letter deeper into her arm.

She was screaming now, and out of weakness, she fainted. blood was trickling down her arm and on the rock they were leaning against. When she awoke, there was a dead walker (she could tell it wasn't Carol) in the leaves across from her, and she was on the ground.

**WELCOME BACK. :) YOU'RE GOOD. IT WASN'T THAT BAD. **

_Why didn't she just kill me._ Beth had no idea where she was, but she was alone. Her arm was throbbing, and it was bleeding so much that she had to wrap it in the bottom of her shirt. She didn't care enough to see what Carol had carved into her arm so she continued walking.

She was wondering why Daryl hadn't come to help her, until she realized that she was strong. "Weak? I'm not w-weak." she was talking to herself, but that was what kept her going.

She tried to remember the way they had come, and she didn't have any weapons on her to fend for herself so she was getting scared. Trudging wearily through the crunching leaves beneath her, she grew so cold and pale that she wasn't shocked if she looked like a walker.

It wasn't more than 10 minutes that Beth walked straight from where she was, and she luckily reached the clearing the house was in and walked toward it, but fell to the ground.

She couldn't walk anymore, and she was losing too much blood to stay awake. She fought to keep open her eyes and she heard the thud of footsteps coming toward her. She couldn't stay awake to see who they were, and everything went black again...

_Finding Beth, Daryl's POV_

The group was still too hungover to be awake, even though he could guess it was around 2 PM. It had been less than twenty minutes until Carol and Beth disappeared from the doorway's view, so he followed them until he couldn't hear them anymore. He walked through the tall grass in the clearing with his crossbow up, ready to shoot anything in his way. He walked through the woods, crunching through the leaves and looking for signs of them, but there were no footprints in the leaves. He was going to get Beth back, even if he was going to die doing it, and he also wouldn't have minded if he could get his knife back too.

On the ground in front of him, he saw that newly fallen and untouched leaves had been scattered profusely over the path that the Group had followed to get to the house and back, which was weird because Tara had mentioned clearing out the path.

He walked the way he knew to go, but didn't see anything. Suddenly, he heard twigs snap somewhere behind him, so of course he followed them.

He was pushing aside branches and hurtling over roots toward the noise, which was continuing in front of him. The closer he got, the louder the noise got, and he could make out the sound of heavy footsteps in the leaves.

Finally, he got to a small patch of bloodstained grass and saw Carol herself standing there and facing him. "Shoot me if you have to. I think I made the impression I needed on Beth."

This remark made him so mad, he wanted to shoot her, and not to kill her either. He wanted her to feel whatever Beth had felt. "Where'd you leave her?"

He turned around, looking for her but she wasn't there. Carol stood there, a wild smile spread across her face. Her hair was wispy and she looked like she had lost it. "Hurry. She'll bleed out before she wakes up. I told you she was wea-"

Carol had started talking but he shot her in the knee and she let out a large cry of pain. "WHERE'S BETH?!" He was yelling- no screaming at her, and he lunged at her to search for his knife so he could-

Out from behind where Carol was lying, through the trees, he could make out the clearing. They had run in circles while she was chasing Carol, so he was right back to the edge of the woods from the house.

He ran through the trees to see if he had just seen what he thought he had: out in the middle of the clearing, stumbling through toward the house with her blonde hair shining in the afternoon sun, was a wearily walking, moaning Beth Greene. And it looked as if she was a walker; blood was all over her shirt and her arm was bleeding still, her face was bruised and she seemed to be walking aimlessly.

"NOOO!" He ran as fast as he could through the tall, thick meadow grass straight toward her, and to his surprise, Beth crumpled to the ground and didn't move.

He picked her up, held her to his chest, and ran toward the house. He didn't notice what was carved into her arm either, and didn't think to look as he ran straight through the front door.

In the living room, he pushed Michonne and Rick down from the couch, and put Beth onto it. Her arm was bleeding even more, and her face was so white that the bruises on her eyes and lip were like large purple circles that seemed to swallow her once-beautiful face.

Rick looked up at him and Beth, shook awake Michonne, and threw up on the rug before helping them.

He was so hungover that he couldn't walk straight, but he went to go get a towel from the kitchen and brought it back without saying anything while they cleaned up Beth.

Daryl could just make out the words on Beth's arm, but when he wiped away the blood long enough to read it, he could see what it was clearly. It was carved into her skin in tiny letters over and over again, but the last time it was written was very large and deep:

_WEAK DOESN'T SURVIVE AND YOU ARE WEAK BETH_

**Author's Note: * PLEASE READ THIS***

Hey! Okay, so I hope you enjoyed the chapter! I was a little bit over the top with the warning, it wasn't bad at all but I really don't want people bothering me about it so I did it. Okay, so if you were going to comment about how dark that was (" OH MY GOSH YOU ARE SO DARK AND SCARY WHY WOULD YOU EVER WRITE ABOUT THAT ") here's why I wrote it: I watched Harry Potter 7 pt. 1 (idk why) last night while I was writing, and Bellatrix cuts into Hermione's arm and writes words so I thought this would be cool. I was writing the sixth chapter during that scene, so I carried it into this. This is weird, I know, but I'm excited to see what my mind makes of it next because I have noooo idea. :) Sorry for this, hope you don't hate me!


	8. I'm Whatever You Are

"Beth! Beth! Can you hear us? Beth! Talk to me!" Daryl and Maggie's faces were drifting in and out of focus in front of her as she lay on the bloodstained couch.

A sopping red towel was wrapped around her arm, her head was numb, and she had no idea what was going on. "She's going back to sleep! Go get water, Gabriel!" _Everbody always sends Gabriel to do stuff..._ she thought dreamily, feeling like she was half asleep.

Her pale face drooped and her head lolled over on the edge of the couch as she helplessly tried to drift off to sleep. "Beth! Stay with us, don't sleep! Hang on!" She had just lost so much blood from the large amount of deep cuts on her arm and she just wanted to sleep...

Daryl hesitated, but he slapped her face to keep her awake unwillingly. "DARYL!" Maggie was crying hysterically and shaking Beth to stay awake, which wasn't helping. Glenn was patting her back awkwardly and Rick was shouting commands and people were running all over the place.

Daryl kept looking at her and saying things like "its gonna be okay" and "stay with me, please Beth". Her head was swimming and she couldn't see clearly, but he was making her feel better. _Just say what you didn't say last night.._.

Beth kept thinking these things and closing her eyes, just to be shook awake again, or have water poured over her face. The water trickled down her chin and into her cuts, making them sear and burn.

"They aren't bleeding so bad- DON'T LET HER SLEEP!" _Why can't I sleep?_ Beth was so drowsy and confused, she had no idea they couldn't hear her thinking and she was wondering why nobody was ans..we...r..ing...her... "BETH! STAY WITH ME!"

Daryl snatched what looked like water from Tara's creek from the way it was so muddy, poured it over her face, and pushed the towel down on her arm. "Beth, come on! You can't go, not now!"

Maggie screamed so loud that it hurt Beth's ears when she tried to drift off to sleep this time, and when she opened her soaking wet eyes, Rick and Glenn were holding Maggie back from Beth. _I'm... so... tired..._

"Beth? BETH! WHATS GOING ON? SHE'S NOT OPENING HER EYES!" Tara was yelling and Maggie was sobbing and the world seemed to slow down with every tear that hit her chest and every... time... water... was... poured...

"BETH GREENE, DAMN IT! STAY WITH ME! PLEASE!" Beth's eyes opened up to the crack in Daryl's voice..._ Are you crying?_

_ANSWER ME!_ Nobody obviously heard her thoughts, and she couldn't speak. "We- we still have that m-medical stuff w- GO GET IT!"

_He's crying!_ She had come to the conclusion that nobody could hear her when the front door burst open and Carol was being carried in, a bloody arrow in her hand.

"DONT WASTE YOUR TIME ON HER! GET THE DAMN STUFF!" Daryl's voice wasn't sad anymore, it was serious- desperate.

"Maggie! Listen- come on- What's your blood type?" Maggie straightened up, but shrieked again when Beth's vision faded and her head rolled over her left shoulder.

_Water. More water. Needle. Lots of yelling. _

Beth's eyes opened and suddenly they were all sitting and holding hands in front of her. The cracks throught he boarded windows where the glow of the orange afternoon sun leaked through weren't light anymore.

Maggie had tears running down her face and her eyes widened with joy when Beth woke up. She lept up toward her, but Michonne held her back. Carol wasn't there, and the Group looked tired.

Eugene yelled with excitement and held the trash can that was filled with fire up closer to them so he could see her, and Tara slapped his arm to put it down. "Not now, Eugene."

"Carol did this?" Rick's voice was weary, he was exhausted. "Yeah." Daryl's scratchy voice was low and dry.

"Well, thats over." _What? Whats over?_ Beth knew they couldn't hear her but she couldn't help but try.

Abraham was holding his rifle up and sitting by a corner, but she couldn't see over the table to see what he was guarding so sternly.

"Beth?" Rosita's face hovered over her, the end of her left pigtail was matted with dried blood and her expression was serious. "Carol did this? We need you to tell us, this is serious."

"Well, who the hell else is there to do this?" Daryl was standing up from where he was next to Beth, and Rick held him back. "Not now."

Beth couldn't nod, and her head suddenly felt like it was clean swept of everything. "Wh-whats happening?! What's she doing? DAR-NO! BETH!" Maggie's voice was even more pathetic and loud than ever, and Michonne and Carl were both holding her back. "STOP IT! HELP- STOP IT, SOMEBODY HELP HER!"

Beth couldn't see or hear anything. She was staring above her, unseeing, unfeeling, twitching and spazzing across the couch. Ten minutes of howling and "shh" and "she's gonna be fine", "remember Carl? This happened to him. Its fine,we just have to let it happen. Hershel told us just to let it go." , Beth couldn't do anything but twitch.

_Daryl's POV_

"She's seizing, Daryl. There's nothing we can do!" Rick had a large bowl they found in the cabinet full of water in his hand, and Daryl was yelling at him in the kitchen.

"GIVE HER MORE BLOOD! Do... do somethin'!" Suddenly, Maggie's crying stopped and they turned their heads to see what had happened.

Daryl ran out of the kitchen and into the living room, straight to Beth's couch and next to her, pushing Carl unintentionally so that he toppled over onto Eugene.

"Shh... Maggie, can we give her just a little more blood? Last tim-" "Yeah, just do it!" She thrust her hand toward whoever was talking, Daryl didn't care. He just wanted Beth to wake up...

Beth's eyes fluttered open for the second time in that hour, and she looked toward Daryl. "Hurry!"

Beth couldn't move still, but Daryl didn't care about that either. He squeezed her hand so hard that he was afraid it would make her arm bleed again so he stopped.

Rosita grabbed a roll of gauze they had found in the house's basement as well with a few medical supplies (band-aids, cold packs, basic injury things) and wrapped it around her arm. She swatted at Daryl's hand-holding, and he lessened his grip on her hand.

Suddenly, he felt her finger twitch and he looked at her. She wasn't siezing anymore, she was holding his hand back! "Guys- guys, she's moving!"

Beth's eyes were open less wide, but they looked more seeing than they were earlier.

"Beth. Its okay! Hang on-" Rosita carefully but fastly jabbed the needle in Beth's other arm, giving her Maggie's blood.

For the first time that night, Beth was relaxed and safe and somewhat healthy, which was all that mattered in the world to him right then.

_Beth's POV_

"Beth. Its okay! Hang on-" she felt a small jit of pain in her not-cut-up arm and the next thing she knew, Daryl was next to her, holding her hand.

"Hey." he whispered in her ear when the Group had decided not to break out what was left of the wine (Eugene said he found hard apple cider in the bookcase and Tara found seven more different sized bottles of whiskey and wine) and Daryl said he would take the first turn of staying in the living room while everybody shared a can of beans.

"I'm sorry. I told you that shit, and I didn't get there soon enough- I should have went to find you immediately. And I was wasted last night..." he kept talking to her, and Beth was too weak to speak, so she kept nodding.

"I was the one who couldn't hit that walker when you fell and I was the one who suggested we get shit-faced drunk, and it was my fault that you and I did whatever we-" he stopped talking and put his head on her stomach. "I'm sorry Beth." He looked up at her again.

She shook her head 'no' at this. _'I love you', just say it. _Even her thoughts sounded desperate...

"I remember some of it... I remember when you spat wine all over the bed and I remember some of the drawin' we did." Beth tried to smile but she couldn't. _When we drew on the post-its and when you kissed me first._

"I uh-" Rick walked into the room, interrupting him, and Daryl turned his head to see him.

"Beans in the kitch- oh." Rick smirked, put a finger to his lips, and turned on his heel to leave.

Beth's eyes widened, but Daryl shook his head.

"We talked to Carol. She's leaving again as soon as she can walk." Beth just looked at him.

"You're not weak. She said you were, but you're not. We ain't weak, and I'm whatever you are."

Beth nodded, and she smiled. Her vision faded as the Group walked in from the kitchen, gathering around the rug again and laughing (this time without the alcohol, at least until Beth and Daryl could join them), and before she knew it, Daryl and Beth were both asleep together; he was leaning on her chest and she was asleep on the couch.

_**Author's Note:**_

_Hey! I hope you enjoyed this chapter, I was trying so hard to follow someone's advice to slow down and play it out, so I did! I loved writing this one, and for me and Gabi (my best friend) eighth chapters are REALLY effing hard to get by! So glad I made it! _

_It was super weird how I used the blood-giving/seizure stuff from the episode where Carl gets shot, sorry if that made you mad. I just thought I'd pay my respect to Hershel's talents so I did it! :) XO_


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